A History of Modern France, CourseSmart eTextbook, 4th Edition

Description

An overview of the history of France from the mid-18th century to the present.

Organized chronologically, A History of Modern France presents a survey of the dramatic events that have punctuated French history, including the French Revolution, the upheavals of the 19th century, the world wars of the 20th century, and France’s current role in the European Union.

Written for today’s undergraduate students, the text presents scholarly controversies in an unbiased manner and reflects the best of contemporary scholarship in French history.

Learning Goals

Upon completing this book readers will be able to:

Describe important events in modern French history

Understand the political, cultural, social, and economic forces that have shaped contemporary France

Appreciate the continued importance of French history for students in the 21st century

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Documents

Voltaire, on Social Conditions in Eighteenth Century France

Louis XIV Writes to His Son (1661)

King Louis XIV, "The Code Noir" (French), 1685

Map

France Under Louis XIV

Audio

Louis XIV

Chapter 2

Documents

French Peasants, Cahiers de doléances

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile

Jacques-Louis Ménétra, Journal of My Life

Petition of Women of the Third Estate

Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, What is the Third Estate?

Chapter 3

Documents

The Marquis de Mirabeau, The Friend of Men, or Treatise on Population, 1756

Black Death (1349) Henry Knighton

Maps

Map Discovery: Grain Supply and Trade in Sixteenth Century Europe

Map Discovery: Cereal Crops in Europe

Image

Slave Revolt in Saint Domingue, 1791

Chapter 4

Documents

Voltaire, Letters On England

Voltaire, “On Universal Toleration”

Baron de Montesquieu, Excerpt from The Spirit of the Laws

Voltaire on the Relation of Church and State (Mid-18th Century) Voltaire